Dienstag, 18. Juli 2017 - 07:40 Uhr

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – On a cold February morning in 1979, a massive crowd gathered on a remote hill in Washington State to watch the day suddenly descend into darkness. For several seconds, no one spoke.

“It’s eerie; it’s getting black here. Darkness at noon,” ABC News Correspondent Jules Bergman said during live coverage of the total solar eclipse. “People are hushed in what seems almost like a ritual thing that mankind has been silenced by, in awe, since the beginning of civilization.”

The tens of thousands of revelers had traveled from across the world to the town of Goldendale, Washington, to get the best view of the last total solar eclipse of the century. The small community, unknown to the majority of the planet, offered the ideal spot for these visitors because it was near the eclipse’s center of total darkness and it was the only place in the eclipse’s path to have a large telescope and observatory.

“This is just the most exciting thing I think I’ve ever participated in,” ABC News Correspondent Ron Miller said when the moon covered the sun. “I can’t tell you how lucky we are.”

The next total eclipse will take place two years from today, on Aug. 21, 2017, and the ideal place to witness this extraordinary celestial event will be in Clarksville, Tennessee. That’s because the city will go dark for about two minutes and 20 seconds, and it is the only place near the centerline of the eclipse with a significant astronomy program. In Clarksville, Austin Peay State University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy has an observatory with a 20-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope, featuring the same optical design as NASA’s Hubble Telescope, and a respected faculty eager to help visitors get the most out of this once-in-a-lifetime event.

“I’m estimating we will have 200,000 people in Clarksville that day, over and above the regular population,” Dr. Allyn Smith, APSU professor of physics, said.

NASA has already contacted APSU about setting up a live feed at the University’s observatory to give viewers across the country an opportunity to see the eclipse, but area hotels are already booking rooms for people keen on witnessing the event with their own eyes. With such a large crowd expected for the eclipse, APSU is working to provide them a memorable experience.

Expedition: APSU

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, with his thinning hair and spectacles, didn’t look much like an adventurer, but in 1919, the Cambridge-educated physicist traveled to the Isle of Principe off of West Africa. The Royal Astronomical Society sent him on an expedition to the distant island to witness a total eclipse and make the first test of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Principe was deemed one of the best places in the world to view the solar event.

That steamy morning in 1919, as the sky darkened, Eddington and his fellow scientists busied themselves with their experiment.

“We have no time to snatch a glance at it,” Eddington wrote in his book, “Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory.” “We are only conscious of the weird half-light of the landscape and the hush of nature, broken by the calls of the observers, and beat of the metronome ticking out the 302 seconds of totality.”

The experiment was a success, confirming Einstein’s theory, and in 2017, the APSU Department of Physics and Astronomy will use its fortunate position in regards to the solar eclipse to recreate Eddington’s experiment. Dr. Spencer Buckner, APSU associate professor of physics, said the University is buying equipment, and his astrophotography classes will use the next two years to develop a process for the experiment.

In 2009, the Royal Astronomical Society sent another expedition to Principe to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the experiment that, according to the BBC, “profoundly changed the way we view the Universe.” That trip was largely a celebratory and educational event because another solar eclipse wasn’t going to occur over the island that May. APSU’s 2017 experiment, 98 years after Eddington’s expedition, will give scientists the rare opportunity to recreate this famous test.

The University will also spend the next two years training students and other astronomy enthusiasts on equipment so they can help guide visitors in Clarksville that summer.

“We want to get with the Clarksville Astronomy Club and Del Square Psi, the student physics club, and get them trained, make sure they have equipment, and then disperse them to parks and places around town,” Smith said. “We’re trying to keep the observatory to the more professional community. We’ll probably have two or three universities that will want to come in and set stuff up.”

Education

The center of the eclipse, with maximum totality of darkness, is actually about 20 miles north of the University, but that location will only remain dark for about 10 more seconds than Clarksville.

“But to the south, the difference between Clarksville and northern Davidson County (Nashville) is about a minute of darkness,” Buckner said. The majority of Davidson County won’t witness a total solar eclipse.

Because of Austin Peay’s fortunate location, the physics and astronomy department is using this opportunity to educate area school children.

“We are developing workshops for local teachers,” Dr. Alex King, chair of the APSU Department of Physics and Astronomy, said. “It’s going to be a day workshop—one next summer and one the summer of 2017—giving them in-service credits.”

In addition to working with local teachers, the department is looking at providing special eclipse glasses to all school children in the Clarksville-Montgomery County area and surrounding counties.

APSU Physics and Astronomy Department

Located at APSU, 40 miles north of Nashville, the Department of Physics and Astronomy has produced three Goldwater Scholars in recent years, and the department’s students have conducted research, as undergraduates, at places such as the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s Geneva laboratory, also known as CERN, a glass productions lab in the Czech Republic and at Fermilab – the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratory. In 2013, APSU student Mees Fix discovered a quasar while working with his professor, Dr. Smith, at Fermilab.

The department’s facilities include a $500,000, NASA-funded Materials Fabrication and Characterization Lab, the APSU Observatory, the Sears Planetarium and a computational physics research lab. The department is a member of the WIYN 0.9m Consortium at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

In 2007, APSU became the site for Tennessee’s first Governor's School in Computational Physics. The highly competitive program is geared toward hardworking high school sophomores and juniors with an interest in engineering, mathematics and science, and allows them to earn seven hours of college credit.

Quelle: APSU

.

Update: 21.08.2016

.

The 'Great American Eclipse' is a year from today

(Photo: Martin Bernetti, AFP/Getty Images)

Got eclipse fever? You're going to need to wait a bit.

The biggest and best solar eclipse in American history arrives a year from today, and plans for celebrations, parties and festivities are already well underway.

On Aug. 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will be visible from coast to coast, according to NASA. It will be the first total eclipse visible only in the USA since the country was founded in 1776.

It will also be the first total solar eclipse to sweep across the entire country in 99 years, NASA says. And not since 1970 has there been an opportunity to see a total solar eclipse in such easily accessible and widespread areas of the nation.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon gets in the way of the sun, turning day to an eerie twilight. Barring pesky clouds, more Americans should be able to see this one than ever before as it passes through 12 states.

The eclipse will start on the West Coast in Oregon and trace a 67-mile wide path east across the country, finally exiting the East Coast in South Carolina. At any given location, the total eclipse will last for around 2 or 3 minutes.

It will pass directly over cities such as Salem, Ore., Idaho Falls, Lincoln, Neb., Kansas City, Nashville, and Columbia and Charleston, S.C. Places within a one- or two-hour drive of the eclipse include Portland, Ore., Boise, Cheyenne, Rapid City, Omaha, Neb., Topeka, St. Louis, Louisville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Atlanta and Charlotte.

An estimated 12 million people live within the path of totality, according to Space.com. The number of people within just one day's drive of the totality zone is around 200 million.

Outside the narrow shadow track, a partial eclipse will be visible from all of North America, parts of South America, western Europe and Africa, according to eclipse expert Fred Espenak.

Nashville, the largest city directly in the eclipse path, is gearing up with special programs and activities. The city's convention and visitors bureau launched a slick website devoted to the eclipse, which they're calling the "Music City Solar Eclipse."

The SolarFest in Oregon is a four-day event, even though the total eclipse will be less than three minutes.

In Idaho Falls, the local astronomical society has fielded calls from Scotland, Germany and Japan about ideal eclipse viewing locations and lodging in the area, according to the Post Register newspaper.

And in Columbia, S.C., the city is expecting and preparing for visitors to come to the region due to its unique location in the path and "to celebrate and witness the spectacle of totality," said Merritt McNeely of the South Carolina State Museum.

Many smaller towns across the eclipse's path are also planning celebrations.

Folks who miss this eclipse won't have to wait too long for the next one: A total solar eclipse will be visible across portions of the southern and eastern U.S. on April 8, 2024.

Quelle: USA TODAY

-

Update: 18.12.2016

.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Provides Public Libraries 1.26 Million Solar Viewing Glasses for the 2017 Solar Eclipse

BOULDER, Colo.–December 16, 2016– The Space Science Institute (SSI) was awarded a grant from the Moore Foundation that will provide 1.26 million solar viewing glasses and other resources for 1,500 public libraries across the nation. They will serve as centers for eclipse education and viewing for their communities. The libraries will be selected through a registration process managed by the STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net) and its NASA@ My Library project. The project team includes staff at SSI’s National Center for Interactive Learning. The Project Director is Dr. Paul Dusenbery (Director of NCIL). Andrew Fraknoi (Chair of the Astronomy Department, Foothill College), Dennis Schatz (Senior Advisor, Pacific Science Center), and Douglas Duncan (Director of the University of Colorado’s Fiske Planetarium) are co-directors.

On August 21, 2017, a spectacular total eclipse of the Sun will be visible across the width of the continental U.S. for the first time since 1918. Every state will have at least 60% of the Sun covered by the Moon, and lucky people on a narrow path from Oregon to South Carolina will see the stunning beauty of totality. Because the total eclipse is only visible in the U.S., it is already being called the Great American Eclipse. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for libraries and their communities to work together to participate in a celestial event of this scope,” says Project Director Paul Dusenbery. “Many organizations like NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the American Astronomical Society, are working together to help people understand and view the eclipse safely, and we are delighted to be part of this important educational effort.” Dr. Robert Kirshner, Chief Program Officer, Science at the Moore Foundation, adds “The Moore Foundation is pleased to help two million eyes enjoy and understand this astronomical spectacle with astronomical spectacles."

About the STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net) Libraries across the country have been reimagining their community role to strengthen community-based learning and foster critical thinking, problem solving, and engagement in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Public libraries serve people of all races, ages, and socio-economic backgrounds. They are becoming

“on-ramps” to STEM learning by creating environments that welcome newcomers to the community.

The Moore Foundation project and NASA@ My Library leverage and expand upon STAR_Net, a hands-on learning network for libraries and their communities across the country (www.starnetlibraries.org). STAR_Net focuses on helping library professionals build their STEM skills by providing “science-technology activities and resources” (STAR) and training to use those resources. It includes a STEM Activity Clearinghouse, blogs, a webinar series, workshops at conferences, and a monthly e-newsletter. Partners include the American Library Association, Association of Rural and Small Libraries, Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, Afterschool Alliance, Cornerstones of Science, and many others.

About the National Center for Interactive Learning

The Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) is dedicated to expanding the understanding and participation of families, youth, teachers, and citizens in science and technology (www.nc4il.org). We foster collaboration between STEM professionals and educators to bring the wonder of science and engineering directly to people. Our programs span a range of audience needs and delivery methods, including traveling museum and public Library exhibitions; educational films, videos, and websites; hands-on resources and activities; and educator workshops. Our programs are designed to be accessible to all, and to inspire the next generation of STEM innovators. They have a positive impact on rural and urban communities nationwide and reach underserved audiences with inspirational, fun, and innovative STEM activities.

www.spacescience.org

The 2017 Solar Eclipse project is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant GBMF5373 to the Space Science Institute.

Quelle: SPACE SCIENCE

-

Update: 16.01.2017

.

Williams College Astronomer and Other Scientists Prepare for the Great American Eclipse of August 21

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., January 7, 2017—Astronomer Jay Pasachoff is busy exciting people about their chance to experience the August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse, whose path of totality will sweep across the United States from coast to coast. He is leading an international team of astronomers in preparing scientific observations to study the sun’s outer layer, the solar corona, and also the effect of the eclipse on the Earth’s atmosphere. To attendees of the American Astronomical Society’s meeting in Grapevine, Texas, this week, Pasachoff presented a paper about scientific observations of solar eclipses and a second paper about matters of outreach and education at all levels relevant to the eclipse. He also participated in a splinter session on eclipse preparations and in a science-writer’s seminar.

Pasachoff tries to bring across to the general public how exciting it is to be outdoors in the path of totality of a solar eclipse. He stresses that “being even 10 or 100 miles outside the path is like being outside a football stadium, technically ‘at the stadium’ but actually missing seeing the main event.” He would like to convince 300 million Americans from all over the country to join the 12 million people who live within the path of totality for the 2 or so minutes of totality on August 21. (An additional 76 million people live within a 200-mile drive of the path, according to map-maker Michael Zeiler of Santa Fe.)

In a talk Pasachoff delivered to science writers on Saturday, August 7, he described a variety of professional efforts scheduled to observe the eclipse. His own group includes scientists from Slovakia, Greece, and Australia in addition to students and colleagues from the United States. They will study the dynamics of the solar corona and study the frequency of oscillations as seen through special coronal filters, part of testing models of how the corona is heated to millions of degrees. They are linking the shape of the corona, held in place by the magnetic field, to the phase of the sunspot cycle, with potential implications for the next cycle. Prof. Shadia Habbal of the University of Hawaii observes with an international group she calls the Solar Eclipse Sherpas. They use a set of filters in visible and infrared light to study the shape of the corona and its polarization, which reveals the orientation of the solar magnetic field. Prof. Alexander Kosovichev of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, working with Dr. Serge Koutchmy of the Institut of Astrophysics of Paris, also plans to study coronal polarization. Koutchmy has special methods for high-contrast and high-resolution processing of coronal images. Many eclipse astronomers work with the image-processing skills of Prof. Miloslav Druckmuller of Brno, Czech Republic.

Prof. Hugh Hudson and Laura Peticolas of the Space Science Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley, are heading a Megamovie project to use thousands of images taken by members of the general public, so-called citizen scientists, to provide an animation of variations in images over the 90 minutes that the Moon’s shadow will take to cross the continental United States. In a separate citizen-science plan, Dr. Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory is planning a Citizen Continental-America Telescope Eclipse Experiment (Citizen CATE), with 60 identical solar telescopes spaced across the path of totality to make an animation of highly calibrated identical images to show coronal dynamics.

A National Science Foundation plane will travel at high altitude to study coronal spectra in the infrared, in a plan led by Drs. Leon Golub and Ed DeLuca of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, with graduate-student Jenna Samra.

Other scientists planning research during totality include Dr. Ulyana Dyudina of Caltech, who is planning to use a new light-sensitive chip that measures polarization pixel-by-pixel; Prof. Brad Schaefer of Louisiana State University, who plans a new version of the light-bending experiment that tested relativity and made Einstein famous; and Prof. Thanasis Economou of the University of Chicago, who plans to make spectra during the eclipse of the solar corona and solar chromosphere, the colorful atmospheric level between the everyday solar surface and the hot corona.

_______

Pasachoff has seen more solar eclipses than anyone ever: the August 21 solar will be his 66th solar eclipse and his 34th total eclipse. He is Chair of the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Solar Eclipses, a joint Working Group of the Solar and the Education/Outreach/Heritage commissions. He is also a member of the Eclipse 2017 Task Force of the American Astronomical Society. Pasachoff is Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College.

His scientific observations at the 2017 total eclipse are sponsored by the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society and the Solar Terrestrial Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation. In addition to his research, he has long worked to spread information about how wonderful it is to observe a total eclipse and how to observe it safely. He is giving papers on such subjects this year not only at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Texas but also at the American Physical Society meeting in Washington, DC, on January 31, and at the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting in Atlanta on February 19, where he is receiving the society’s Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award. He has arranged a session on the eclipse at the meeting in Boston on February 17 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also speaking at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh on January 29, and the Southern Star event for amateur astronomers at Wildacres in the Blue Ridge Mountains, NC, for Charlotte Amateur Astronomers Club on April 29/30. He is arranging an exhibition on eclipse-related art and artifacts at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, for June through August. He is completing articles on the Sun and the eclipse for Scientific American and Nature Astronomy, in addition to providing a Resource Letter on Solar Eclipses for the American Journal of Physics.

Pasachoff is coauthor, with Leon Golub, of a popular book about the Sun: Nearest Star: The Surprising Science of Our Sun, and of a technical book, The Solar Corona. The books will be assigned as part of the reading of a spring-semester course he is giving at Williams College on solar physics, in which the students will have the opportunity to prepare for eclipse observing and to accompany the research team to the eclipse itself. Pasachoff and Golub have prepared a new book, The Sun, for the Science Museum, London, to be published in June. The latest printing of his Peterson Field Guide to the Stars and Planets contains two dozen pages about eclipse observing. Pasachoff is working with PBS’s NOVA to prepare a television show to air two nights after the eclipse.

Saturday, 7 January, 2:15-2:25, “Yes, You Can Still Do Science During Solar Eclipses,” in the Seminar for Science Writers: The August 2017 All-American Solar Eclipse, organized by Dr. Rick Fienberg, Austin 5

His books are listed at http://solarcorona.com and his past eclipse expeditions are linked at http://totalsolareclipse.org. His website for the International Astronomical Union is at http://eclipses.info

Eclipse 2017: NASA Supports a Unique Opportunity for Science in the Shadow

The first total solar eclipse in the continental United States in nearly 40 years takes place on Aug. 21, 2017. Beyond providing a brilliant sight in the daytime sky, total solar eclipses provide a rare chance for scientists to collect data only available during eclipses. NASA is funding 11 scientific studies that will take advantage of this opportunity.

“When the moon blocks out the sun during a total eclipse, those regions of Earth that are in the direct path of totality become dark as night for almost three minutes,” said Steve Clarke, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “This will be one of the best-observed eclipses to date, and we plan to take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn as much as we can about the sun and its effects on Earth.”

The total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017, stretches across the U.S. from coast to coast, providing scientists with a unique opportunity to study the eclipse from different vantage points.

Credits: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

The August 2017 total solar eclipse will provide a unique opportunity to study Earth, the sun, and their interaction because of the eclipse’s long path over land. The path of the total eclipse crosses the U.S. from coast to coast, so scientists will be able to take ground-based observations over a period of more than an hour to complement the wealth of data provided by NASA satellites.

The 11 NASA-funded studies cross a range of disciplines, using the total solar eclipse to observe our sun and Earth, test new instruments, and even leverage the skills of citizen scientists to expand our understanding of the sun-Earth system. The studies are listed below, followed by the name of the principal investigator and their home institution.

Studying the sun

During a total solar eclipse, the moon blocks out the sun’s overwhelmingly bright face, revealing the relatively faint solar atmosphere, called the corona. Scientists can also use an instrument called a coronagraph – which uses a disk to block out the light of the sun – to create an artificial eclipse. However, a phenomenon called diffraction blurs the light near the disk in a coronagraph, making it difficult to get clear pictures of the inner parts of the corona, so total solar eclipses remain the only opportunity to study these regions in clear detail in visible light. In many ways, these inner regions of the corona are the missing link in understanding the sources of space weather – so total solar eclipses are truly invaluable in our quest to understand the sun-Earth connection.

The sun-focused studies are:

Exploring the Physics of the Coronal Plasma through Imaging Spectroscopy during the 21 August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse (Shadia Habbal, University of Hawaii)

Testing a Polarization Sensor for Measuring Temperature and Flow Speed in the Solar Corona during the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 August 21 (Nat Gopalswamy, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)

Rosetta-stone experiments at infrared and visible wavelengths during the August 21 2017 Eclipse (Philip Judge, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research)

Studying Earth

Total solar eclipses are also an opportunity to study Earth under uncommon conditions. The sudden blocking of the sun during an eclipse reduces the light and temperature on the ground, and these quick-changing conditions can affect weather, vegetation and animal behavior.

The Earth-focused studies are:

Solar eclipse-induced changes in the ionosphere over the continental US (Philip Erickson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Quantifying the contributions of ionization sources on the formation of the D-region ionosphere during the 2017 solar eclipse (Robert Marshall, University of Colorado Boulder)

Land and Atmospheric Responses to the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse (Bohumil Svoma, University of Missouri)

Quelle: NASA

---

Update: 27.03.2017

.

AAS Awards 31 Mini-Grants for August 2017 Solar Eclipse

Thirty-one outreach projects in 21 states are receiving mini-grants up to $5,000 from the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to prepare the public for this year’s most anticipated celestial spectacle: the first total eclipse of the Sun to touch the US mainland since 1979 and the first to span the continent since 1918. This nationwide educational effort is funded by the National Science Foundation and administered by the AAS Solar Eclipse Task Force. It is specifically aimed at reaching members of under-represented groups, including women/girls, ethnic minorities, and people with physical and/or mental disabilities, who often don’t imagine themselves in science careers or who think that science is not for them.

On Monday, 21 August 2017, a total solar eclipse will darken a roughly 70-mile-wide swath of the US from Oregon (in the late morning) to South Carolina (in the mid-afternoon). Millions of citizens and visitors will have a chance to see the ethereal solar corona — the Sun’s wispy outer atmosphere — and experience “darkness at midday.” Outside this narrow path of totality, all of North America will have a partial solar eclipse. The event is being called the Great American Eclipse or All-American Eclipse because the Moon’s dark shadow crosses the entire continental US but touches no other country as it travels 8,600 miles across Earth’s surface.

The AAS mini-grants program is named for Julena Steinheider Duncombe (1911-2003), an astronomer and educator who started the country’s first school-lunch program for underprivileged children. For many years she published eclipse predictions for the US Naval Observatory. Several towns in Nebraska where she taught school will be in the path of the Moon’s shadow on 21 August 2017.

These projects will engage the public via eclipse-related education and outreach activities in a wide variety of venues, including science museums, planetariums, libraries, schools, afterschool programs, and college campuses — some in the path of totality, others in places where the eclipse will only be partial. Brief descriptions of the funded projects, and email links to the principal investigators, may be found on the AAS solar-eclipse website.

“There is clearly a lot of interest in this summer’s solar eclipse,” says task-force co-chair Angela Speck (University of Missouri, Columbia). “We received 153 mini-grant proposals representing a remarkable amount of creativity and enthusiasm. I wish we could have funded more of them, but the 31 projects we did fund will help spread ‘eclipse fever’ around the country and will undoubtedly motivate significant numbers of underserved youth to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.”

The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. The membership (approx. 8,000) also includes physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers, and others whose research interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising contemporary astronomy. The mission of the American Astronomical Society is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe, which it achieves through publishing, meeting organization, education and outreach, and training and professional development.

Quelle: AAS

---

Update: 22.06.2017

.

NASA Prepares for Aug. 21 Total Solar Eclipse with Live Coverage, Safety Information

This image of the moon crossing in front of the sun was captured on Jan. 30, 2014, by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observing an eclipse from its vantage point in space.

Credits: NASA

For the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse will occur across the entire continental United States, and NASA is preparing to share this experience of a lifetime on Aug. 21.

Viewers around the world will be provided a wealth of images captured before, during, and after the eclipse by 11 spacecraft, at least three NASA aircraft, more than 50 high-altitude balloons, and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station – each offering a unique vantage point for the celestial event.

NASA Television will air a multi-hour show, Eclipse Across America: Through the Eyes of NASA, with unprecedented live video of the celestial event, along with coverage of activities in parks, libraries, stadiums, festivals and museums across the nation, and on social media.

Coast to coast, from Oregon to South Carolina, 14 states will – over a span of almost two hours – experience more than two minutes of darkness in the middle of the day. When the moon completely blocks the sun, day will turn into night and make visible the otherwise hidden solar corona, the sun’s atmosphere. Bright stars and planets also will become visible. Using specialized solar viewing glasses or other equipment, all of North America will be able to view at least a partial eclipse lasting two to four hours.

“Never before will a celestial event be viewed by so many and explored from so many vantage points – from space, from the air, and from the ground,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “With our fellow agencies and a host of scientific organizations, NASA will continue to amplify one key message: Take time to experience the Aug. 21 eclipse, but experience it safely.”

Viewing Safety

The only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through special-purpose solar filters, such as eclipse glasses or handheld solar viewers. Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun. In the 70-mile-wide swath of the country that will experience a total eclipse, it’s safe to look at the total eclipse with your naked eyes only during the brief period of totality, which will last about two minutes, depending on your location.

An alternative method for safe viewing of the partially-eclipsed sun is with a pinhole projector. With this method, sunlight streams through a small hole – such as a pencil hole in a piece of paper, or even the space between your fingers – onto a makeshift screen, such as a piece of paper or the ground. It’s important to watch the screen, not the sun.

NASA and other agencies will provide vital information and updates on their respective websites that include viewing safety, activities across the country including at national parks, in addition to transportation preparations.

Studying Our Sun

Many researchers and citizen scientists will take advantage of this unique opportunity to study our sun, solar system, and Earth under rare circumstances. The sudden blocking of the sun during an eclipse reduces the light and changes the temperature on the ground, creating conditions that can affect local weather and animal behavior.

Understanding the sun has always been a top priority for space scientists. These scientists study how the sun affects space and the space environment of planets – a field known as heliophysics. As a source of light and heat for life on Earth, scientists want to understand how our sun works, why it changes, and how these changes influence life on Earth. The sun’s constant stream of solar material and radiation can impact spacecraft, communications systems, and orbiting astronauts.

“Eclipse 2017 provides an incredible opportunity to engage the entire nation and the world, inspiring learners of all ages who have looked to the sky with curiosity and wonder,” said Steven Clarke, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division in Washington.

NASA spacecraft capturing the event include: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will turn toward Earth to track the shadow of the moon on our planet; a host of Earth-observing spacecraft, which can both observe the shadow of the moon and measure how it affects Earth’s weather; and a fleet of solar observing spacecraft. NASA images and data of the eclipse will complement that collected by other scientific organizations.

Quelle: NASA

---

Update: 27.06.2017

.

Alaska Airlines sets up flight to chase total solar eclipse – with a two-seat giveaway

The black disk of a total solar eclipse hangs over the clouds during an Alaska Airlines flight in 2016. Passengers on an August flight should see a similar sight. (Robert Stephens via YouTube)

Alaska Airlines has scheduled a flight from Portland to chase views of the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse over the clouds, but you can’t book a seat online.

The charter flight, due for a 7:30 a.m. PT takeoff on eclipse day, will be open by invitation only to astronomy enthusiasts and other VIPs. Except for two seats. Those seats will be given away in a social-media contest scheduled to begin on July 21, one month before the eclipse.

Last year’s schedule change was made at the behest of eclipse-chasers who noticed that the regularly scheduled flight path came oh-so-close to intersecting the path of totality. This year’s flight, in contrast, was added to the schedule specifically to take advantage of the eclipse.

As they fly along the Oregon coast, the passengers will be among the first to see the total eclipse on Aug. 21. For most eclipse-chasers, sky conditions loom as the biggest uncertainty in deciding where to go. But the fact that Alaska Airlines’ passengers will be flying at an altitude of 35,000 feet guarantees they’ll get a clear view of the total eclipse, regardless of the weather below.

From Oregon, the track of totality goes all the way across the country to the South Carolina coast. A partial solar eclipse will be visible from virtually all of North America.

“As an airline, we are in a unique position to provide a one-of-a-kind experience for astronomy enthusiasts,” Sangita Woerner, Alaska’s vice president of marketing, said in a news release. “Flying high above the Pacific Ocean will not only provide one of the first views, but also one of the best.”

Hotels and campsites along the path of totality have been virtually sold out for months, and Alaska reported that flights to eclipse destinations such as Redmond in central Oregon and Sun Valley in Idaho are filling up for August’s big week as well.

Quelle: GeekWire

---

Update: 18.07.2017

.

America’s greatest eclipse is coming, and this man wants you to see it

NEW YORK — He approaches the first stranger with an expectant smile and an urgent query: “Do you know about the solar eclipse?”

The man shakes his head, and Mike Kentrianakis is launched. He’s here at the Hayden Planetarium as an emissary of the American Astronomical Society, and his mission is to spread the word: On Aug. 21, the moon will pass between the sun and Earth, casting a shadow across a swath of the United States. The spectacle will be like nothing most people have ever seen.

Carmen Irizarry, a science teacher from Staten Island, walks over with her two young granddaughters. She’s been thinking about taking them to a spot on the path of totality — where the moon will completely block out the sun for a few mesmerizing minutes. “I entirely encourage it,” Kentrianakis tells her. “It’s a completely different phenomenon. It shouldn’t even be called an eclipse. It should be called something else.”

Kentrianakis would know. He has witnessed 20 solar eclipses in his 52 years, missing work, straining relationships and spending most of his life’s savings to chase the moon’s shadow across the globe. The pursuit has taken him to a mountaintop in Argentina, a jungle in Gabon, an ice field north of the Arctic Circle — exposing him to every type of eclipse there is to see, on every continent except Antarctica. Last year he watched one from an airplane 36,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean. The video of his rapturous reaction went viral, cementing his status as a “crazy eclipse guy,” as he jokingly calls himself. “Oh, my God,” Kentrianakis exclaims 21 times in the 3½ -minute clip. “Totality! Totality! Whooo, yeah!”

But it’s the Aug. 21 eclipse, the first in a century to cross the entire continental United States, that Kentrianakis has been looking forward to for a lifetime. As the moon races in its orbit around Earth, it will briefly pass between our planet and the sun, completely blocking out the sunlight for people standing in its 70-mile-wide shadow. Over the course of an hour and a half, that shadow will follow the moon’s path across the continent, beginning off the Oregon coast and sweeping down to South Carolina.

Mike Kentrianakis in 1979 in Manitoba for his first total solar eclipse. (Courtesy of Mike Kentrianakis)

Finally, all of America will see what he has seen. Finally, “they’re going to understand.”

“If it strikes you hard enough,” Kentrianakis says, “you will never be the same.”

Kentrianakis was first struck on Feb. 26, 1979, in the middle of a snowy farm field in Manitoba. He wa